Throughout his campaign and previous to getting involved in politics, Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he is a climate change denier and doesn’t believe serious action needs to be taken to combat global warming. In fact, he has gone so far as to state that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese in order to steal American jobs. As the next President of The United States, Trump now has the power to make good on his promises and pull out of the fight against climate change. But what do Americans think of their Commander in Chief’s brilliant ideas?
What terrible idea does Trump have now?
Trump has made his distaste for the Paris Climate Change Agreement very clear. In his plan for his first 100 days in office, Trump outlines his strong desire to immediately pull the United States out of this agreement and many other treaties and collective agreements that address the issue of climate change.
How does the Paris Climate Change Agreement work?
The Paris Climate Change Agreement is a global commitment to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius per year by having the countries of the world reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. 195 countries, including the United States, adopted this agreement in December 2015.
The Paris Agreement will go into effect 30 days after 55 or more countries, accounting for 55% of global gas emissions, have signed and ratified the accord. Both the United States and China, huge emitters of greenhouse gases, signed on in September. The agreement is now very close to going into effect.
Once in effect, committed countries will be responsible for creating national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These plans will be reviewed every five years and are expected to get more ambitious over time. Countries will also pledge to keep their emission information public and up to date.
Unfortunately, it is not clear what the consequence will be, if any, for countries who are unable to live up to their end of the pledge. Of course, the other partner countries will be disappointed, but is disappointment enough to bring about change? Especially if the person who needs to make change is a notorious climate change denier and proponent of furthering greenhouse gas emissions by supporting pipelines and the coal industry?
What do Americans think of Trump’s plans to pull out?
Turns out, Trump doesn’t have the support of Americans, neither Republican or Democrat, on his outrageous stance to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs surveyed just over 2000 American citizens in June to assess their thoughts on the Paris Agreement and climate change in general. A majority 71% of those surveyed believed that America should participate in the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Broken down by political party, 57% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats supported participation in the agreement.
However, when it comes to fighting climate change, there were stark differences in opinions amongst Republicans and Democrats. The Chicago Council survey went on to ask respondents to agree with one of three statements: 1) climate change is a serious issue and we need to take big steps regardless of the cost, 2) climate change is a gradual issue so we should take gradual low cost steps to address it, 3) until we are sure climate change is an issue, we should not take economic steps to address it.
The majority of Democrat respondents, 62%, agreed with the first statement that climate change is a big problem and needs to be addressed no matter what the financial burden. Unfortunately, only 19% of Republicans felt the same way. The majority of Republican survey participants, 46%, agreed with statement two that climate change is gradually occurring and can be addressed with gradual low-cost options. The third, and most dangerous, response rang true to 34% of Republicans and only 7% of Democrats.
What happens now?
Based on the results of this survey and similar studies, it is clear that the American public are opening their eyes to harsh realities of climate change and the need to do something. Where they are divided lies in what that something is. Climate scientists and researchers have shared startling evidence that tell us the time to take big action against climate change is now. We are past the point of gradual low-cost steps. But even gradual steps would be better than removing America from climate change agreements entirely. Most Americans support global collective agreements where the burden of fixing a problem, such as climate change, and the resources to do so are shared. Hopefully someone will be able to make that point clear to Trump before he takes office and severely hurts the world’s chances of overcoming global warming.